The 2006 “Creativity and Aging Study” found that community-based arts programs had “powerful positive intervention effects” on older adults’ health.
Cultural institutions like the High Museum of Art in Atlanta create programming specifically for aging adults.
“At one level, you’re talking about technique,” Westover said.
“At one level, you’re talking about just visual acuity.
But at another level, you’re talking about how do you think about your own life and mortality, and how do you talk about that with your friend in a way that isn’t supercharged?”
The findings align with research conducted in the United States. The 2006 “Creativity and Aging Study” found that community-based arts programs had “powerful positive intervention effects” on older adults’ health.
Cultural institutions like the High Museum of Art in Atlanta create programming specifically for aging adults. Andrew Westover, the museum’s director of learning and civic engagement, said their Culture Collective programs are designed specifically for people 50 and over, “around the idea that people are always learning and growing.”
“There [are] all of these ways that gathering at the museum, because of its unique characteristics, encourages people to keep growing and keep asking questions.”
He told Healthline the museum aims to create spaces where “people’s brains are constantly tickled,” prompting them to be curious. That curiosity could look like participants in a screen printing or color theory workshop asking the instructor to show them how they executed a specific brush or, something more conceptual, like how the contrast of light and shadow can reflect a person’s life.
“At one level, you’re talking about technique,” Westover said. “At one level, you’re talking about just visual acuity. But at another level, you’re talking about how do you think about your own life and mortality, and how do you talk about that with your friend in a way that isn’t supercharged?”
